1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display panel (hereinafter abbreviated to "PDP") and, more specifically, to a DC PDP provided with electrodes and resistors of novel structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been proposed various types of gas discharge display panels and R & D efforts have been made for the development of large gas discharge display panels, and the enhancement of efficiency and definition. A so-called DC PDP is representative of those known gas discharge display panels. The DC PDP has two transparent insulating substrates, a group of cathodes and a group of anodes formed on the two substrates, respectively, and barrier ribs arranged in a grid between the two substrates to form discharge cells having discharge terminals. Gas discharges are induced in the discharge cells to emit light. In the DC PDP, suppression of sputtering of the cathodes as the result of impact by ions of the discharge gas is very important to extend the life of the dc PDP. A previously proposed method of suppressing the sputtering of the cathodes increases the pressure of a discharge gas confined in a PDP to reduce the kinetic energy of positive ions of the discharge gas. However, abnormal discharges due to the high pressure of the discharge gas must be avoided when the pressure of the discharge gas is increased. A previously method of avoiding abnormal discharges combines resistors of 50 to 1500 k( with the discharge cells, respectively, for current control.
The conventional DC PDP is provided with discrete resistors respectively for the discharge cells. A structure of such a configuration is unsuitable for miniaturization and difficult to fabricate. In addition, the different resistors have different resistances that cause difference in discharge current between the discharge cells, which entails difference in the intensity of light between the discharge cells. Such difference in the intensity of light forms an irregular luminance distribution on the screen.
In order to prevent the above drawback, the inventors of this application have developed such a structure that the resistors extend continuously through the plurality of discharge cells to connect the discharge terminals through connecting parts. In this structure, however, the discharge terminals are affected by the adjacent discharge terminals, and therefore they cause also the difference in the intensity of light between the discharge cells.